Into the Lion's Den
by Bznboy
Summary: Caught between two powerful Abyssal Fleet, a fleet of six ship girls sail against the compass in the hope of escaping them, unaware that by doing so, they have chosen the greater of the two evils. Infrequent Updates
1. Overwhelmed

Prologue: Overwhelmed

* * *

A gloomy sky loomed over the heads of a fleet that was retreating from a battle, multiple rips and scratches adorning their clothing and equipment. Morale seems to be at an all-time low as the flagship, a young, dark browned haired, female teenager wearing a wide collared, black and white sailor uniform with red highlights and a red ribbon.

"That was a horrible battle," complained one of the members, a younger girl with a lighter shade of brown hair, wearing a white collared shirt with a torn, grey and white pleated skirt held by matching suspenders, showing her black sports shorts. Long black armbands stretched from the middle of her arms to her wrist. Her brown leather shoes, bearing the symbol of an anchor, gave a spluttering sound every once in a while as she held onto her left thigh, covered by knee high black socks. Her armaments are badly beaten up, smoking heavily as she focused on keeping up.

"That's a battle group for ya: Full firepower, and no pulled punches." Another brunette giggled, her dark green sailor uniform filled with holes from multiple shelling. As with the other girls, her armaments are badly damaged, smoke trails leaving her back rigging, torpedo launchers cracked and used. Even her favourite hand cannon was not spared.

"It's all The Admiral's fault, sending us to defend against a fleet like that." Another girl, dressed similarly to the previous girl, but with shorter brown hair instead of the long, braided black hair. As before, all of her rigging is damaged, smoking heavily with cracks and scratches. "Kitakami and I may be strong, but they are at another level!" She grumbled angrily.

"Mah, don't be so mean to the Admiral, Ooichi. It's not like he knew about it, after all." The other girl clad in the green tried to reason.

"No, Kitakami, I will, as the admiral refused to add a battleship to our fleet—" Ooi scoffed angrily.

"Both of you, stop arguing, please. Our top priority is to get back home safely." The first girl demanded.

"Why should I, you insufferable—"

"— Alright, Shigure-san—"

"— why are you letting her push you!?" Ooi wailed at Kitakami, who shrugged noncommittally.

Shigure then turn behind, facing the last two members of the fleet.

"Harusame-san, what's the status of our pursuing enemies?"

"They're not giving up, but we should be escaping then in a few minutes time." A pinked-haired girl, wearing the same attire as Shigure, reported.

"Good, keep a look out for them; Aoba-san, how about our front?" Looking at the final girl, an older girl with shoulder-length violet hair tied into a ponytail, wearing blue and white sailor top and blue pants instead of the regular sailor skirt. A yellow ribbon, slight torn, fit snugly into her collar, and she wore black, thigh high socks with matching shoes. Her face was contorted into one of fear and shock.

"Aoba-san?" Shigure called again.

"E-E-Enemy fleet, s-s-spotted!" she screamed. Almost instantly, the girls straighten up and began scanning their surroundings.

"Where?"

"Heading toward us from our front! Three Standard Aircraft Carriers, one Battleship and two Destroyers! Contact in thirty seconds!" Aoba's stuttering had gone, but the look of fear is still visible on her face.

Immediately, Shigure check the compass for a possible escape route. To her disappointment, the compass only pointed forward. The weakest point of the Abyss is still in front, but Shigure knew that if they entered the next battle, most, if not all, will be sunk.

"If you have any suggestions, please tell us now." Shigure shouted to her fleet, fear gripped her as hard as the others, and the fact of having not the faintest clue of what to do shook her even more.

Silence filled the air as all six fleet girls racked their brains for a solution.

"H-H-How about we surrender to them?" Kitakami suggested nervously.

"W-We could try r-r-running past them." Harusame stuttered.

"They'll just shoot us down if we tried that; we should go with Kitakami-san's suggestion!" Ooi growled.

"T-Twenty seconds till contact!" Aoba stated fearfully.

"Shigure-san, we could try running into the Abyss." The still unnamed girl suggested.

"Eh? B-But Asagumo-san, we will not know what would happen if we do that." Shigure answered nervously, but listened when she continued.

"So we have a chance of escaping the field alive, I'd like to take that than to go down fighting a one-sided battle." Asagumo explained.

"Are you crazy!? To defy the compass, who knows what would happen!"

Shigure thought hard over her suggestion. It's true, none of the Navy actually knew what would happened if the girls had ignored the Abyss; it was educated well into their minds never to go against the compass, no matter how much they hated it. But in this time of desperation, what should they do?

"Ten seconds! Shigure-san, please decide quickly!" Aoba yelled.

If they were going to die anyway, what's the use trying to fight a losing battle? Any damage they did would be regenerated back by the time the next fleet arrived. Her mind made up, she turned around to face the fleet again.

"Everyone, please listen to me. We will try running into the abyss—"

"—Shigure!?" Ooi screamed at her, shocked.

"Please! Listen! Running past them would cause us to die, so would surrendering; we had cases like these already. If we escape the pincer by running into the Abyss, it would prove that the Abyssal Fleet has no connection to the Abyss, and we could actually use that to our advantage in the future. No need to follow the compass anymore, we could plot our own route for our strike into the enemies base of operations."

A brief moment passed as the three others mused about it.

"Well~ it would make an interesting way to go out." Kitakami joked lightly.

"If Kitakami-san is fine with it… I guess so…" Ooi sighed.

"Even a percent is better than none…" Harusame uncertainly agreed.

"Five seconds, Shigure!"

"Fleet, line abreast formation! We'll minimize any possible effects of the Abyss by going in a straight line!" Shigure ordered. As quick as lightning, the fleet sailed into formation and entered the abyss.

"Asagumo-san…"

"Yes, Shigure-san?"

"If we make it back to the base unharmed, I'll treat you to anything."

"Not that I asked for it, but I'll take it." Asagumo replied cheerily, unaware that they had leapt out of the frying pan, and into the fire.


	2. Blind as Bats

Chapter 1: Blind as Bats

* * *

"Man… what's with the fog…? I can barely see two feet in front of me…" Aoba complained as the fleet inched closer to the flagship in formation. Shigure had already attempted communication with Headquarters several times, failing each and every time.

"Keep close, everyone. We cannot lose sight of anyone in our fleet to the fog." Shigure advised, slowing down to let the fleet catch up. "If we do, we'll never meet each other again."

As if in response to the fleet hugging close to each other, the fog thickens, causing everyone to be unable to see what is in front of them.

"Is it just me, or did the fog thickened?" Ooi questioned worriedly, hugging even closer to Kitakami.

"I can't even see my hands out stretched now…" She complained as she did.

"Hmm, how about we hold each other hands? That way, we could follow Shigure-san easily enough without getting separated." Harusame suggested, feeling really uncomfortable being stuck between the two Kuma-class Torpedo Cruisers.

The entire fleet came to a full stop, arranging themselves properly to continue. It took a while to convince Ooi to let go of Kitakami, but she did eventually.

Right before the fleet resumed their advance, Shigure heard a pair of girl spoke.

"…Kisaragi-san?"

"Eh? Did you say something?"

"I thought I saw someone… must've been my imagination."

* * *

"I think the fog's clearing up…" Two hours into sailing, Shigure yelled back to the fleet. She was met with various responses, ranging from 'Are you sure?' to 'Finally' she gave a sigh of relief, happy that their gamble has paid off.

"Looks like your gamble work, huh Asagumo?"

"I don't like this…" Asagumo whispered worriedly back.

"What do you mean; I thought you would be happy."

"Why did our instructors warn us about going into the Abyss then? It can't be there for no apparent reason; I'm not trying to jinx anything, but we've been sailing for an hour already, shouldn't we have encountered something bad by now? Where are the—"quickly, Shigure covered her mouth.

"I don't want to jinx it either, so don't look a gift-horse in the mouth. Let's hope we can make it back home intact before we question them." She smiled as she looked to the sky, and in that instant, instead of the heavens, she saw a hellish sight.

Countless Abyssal dive bombers littered the sky, flying in their general direction. In complete uniformity, they dived, heading straight towards the battered fleet.

"Evasive manoeuvres!" Shigure screamed hoarsely. Immediately, the fleet broke the human chain and began zigzagging towards her general direction.

Unable to see due to the fog gathering up again, Shigure trusted her instincts to keep her ups of harm's way, bobbing and weaving while heading to the general direction.

Where did they come from? Shigure thought desperately, judging from the direction the Abyssal Aviation Division seems to be coming from, it would be right in front. But with such a fog in front of them, how could they maintain contact with their Division, let alone prevent them from damaging their allies?

"Gyak!" Suddenly, she heard Kitakami's scream from behind, indicating she's been hit.

"Kitakami-san!"

"Gwuah!" Another scream, this time, it seems that Harusame was hit.

"Harusame-chan!" Caught between advancing forward and checking if her allies were safe, she chose the former. One by one, she heard her allies fell, each death hitting harder than the last one. Five cries, five deaths; she was alone.

For a moment, she thought she saw the Aircraft Carrier. Without hesitation, she pulled the massive twelve point seven centimetre twin cannon from her back, aimed it at the figure's head, and fired.

"Sink!"

Simultaneously, both cannons fired, heading straight at the Carrier's head. A resounding boom occurred as she waited impatiently for the smoke to clear.

When the explosion subsided, what she saw horrified her.

"You're… lying…"

The Carrier was completely undamaged, as if the round had just bounced off her body. Her bullets had no damage at all! The enemy stared in her directed, as if confused to what Shigure had just done.

A shocking silence occurred as both parties stared each other down, waiting for Shigure's cannons to reload. As it did, she raised it up again.

"I will not give up here!"

_BOOM BOOM_

Two explosions sounded again, the bullets hitting the woman's face again. To Shigure's horror, neither bullet penetrated through her armour, leaving the disappointed expression of the Aircraft Carrier fully visible.

"You're… lying…"

Using her head, the Aircraft Carrier indicated Shigure to look up, which had four bombers unloading their payload right on top of her.

"W…What's going on…?"

"Shigure-san!" A voice screams out from a distance.

"Huh…?" Suddenly, the bombs disappear, as with all the dive bombers and the Carrier, clutching tightly from behind was a girl with long pink hair in a side ponytail, wearing the same clothes as her.

"Haru…same…chan…?"

"Snap out of it!" Harusame cried, shaking her sister hard.

Her vision cleared, she saw all her fellow fleet, alive and as well as a heavily damaged fleet could be.

"H-how…?"

"The moment you yelled at us to begin evasive manoeuvres, the fog cleared up. You started acting strange, dodging invisible shells. You yelled our names halfway in, and began speeding towards Aoba for some reason. About five kilometres away, you fired your first shells at her, which she dodged by ducking." Asagumo reported.

"I… did?" Shigure whispered softly, trying to hold back her shock of firing on her own team mate.

"Well, I guess I did jinx it, after all… Could've sworn your eyes glowed red when you fired your second shot, but you seem to have given up after your second shot." Asagumo commented.

"Are you alright, Shigure-nee-san?" Harusame asked worriedly, releasing her tight grip on Shigure.

Instead of answer, Shigure merely turned around, wrapped her hands around her little sister, and began sobbing.

"I…I-I thought… I'd lost you…"

Unsure of what to do, Harusame slowly stroked her older sister's head, murmuring, "It's okay, I'm here" repeatedly.

"I'm not sure what happened, but it didn't seem like Shigure-san was herself as the time, she didn't move with that… grace she usually has, you know?" Kitakami commented.

"Hmmm… Maybe the mist did something to her? Like poisoning or something." Ooi suggested, easily keeping up with Kitakami's thoughts.

"If's that's the case, wouldn't all of us be acting weirdly? Why only her?" Aoba questioned, her observation skills quickly put to use.

"Umm… 'Cause's she was in front, I guess?" Kitakami shrugged noncommittally.

"That's would make sense, she took the brunt of the mist, inhaling most of the poison. As expected from Kitakami-san, you really know your stuff." Ooi praised her happily.

"Well… It's not like they were hard to spot…"

"So either way, we need do a rotation of some sort. Shigure-san, our flagship, should stay in the middle of our human chain so that she can discern what to do in case of an enemy attack. I'll stay in front for the time being, until I cannot endure it anymore. Then I'll switch with Harusame-san, followed by Kitakami-san and Ooi-san, is that fine?" Asagumo quickly put together a plan.

"Ah yes, where is Aoba-san in our vanguard rotation?" Ooi gave a sickly smile at Asagumo, who merely sighed at her.

"Aoba-san is our main attacker, why do you think I let her out of it?"

"Why should we listen to a mere destroyer then!? I do not agree with Aoba being our main attacker, Kitakami is more than match of Aoba's firepower."

"Well— I move slower that any of you…" Aoba started, and was quickly silenced by a nasty glare from Ooi.

"Who'd said you could talk!?"

"That's not what I saying. If Aoba-san loses control, we need to the restrain her, not sink her. But Shigure, Harusame and I probably will not be able to help in any way. I'm not even sure if Kitakami would be either. Do you think you can stop her without sinking either you or her?"

"I… I…"

"Pointing your cannons at a friend is scary, y'know?" Kitakami nonchalantly commented with a serious expression, which sealed defeat for Ooi as she hung her head.

"Don't get cocky, you brat…"

"Alright, let's form up and get out of here."

* * *

The next incident occurred two hours after formation. Kitakami led the fleet, followed closely by Ooi, with Shigure, having calmed down enough to sail on her own, Aoba ready to fight and Harusame and Asagumo trailed behind the fleet. The fog around them was extremely dense, forcing the six ship girls to form another human chain.

"Right now, it seems like the strategy is working…" Asagumo commented uncertainly.

"Yeah… you're right…" Shigure nodded, glancing around the fog to try spotting some potential enemies. "Hopefully, it will stay that way…"

"No Abyssal Fleet, no strange incidents… We should be nearing the exit soon." Aoba informed them.

"Let's hope that there isn't any Abyssal ships waiting for us to come out, I don't think we can fight against destroyers in our state." Asagumo joked as they sailed in peace.

"Well the exit we're talking about usually has no Abyssal there anyway, what are the chances?" Kitakami comments as she led the fleet through.

"True, but what if entering the Abyss has caused an anomaly, this is the Abyss that we were told to avoid, if you don't remember." Harusame theorised as she keep a look out of any possible enemies chasing them.

The four members went into deep thought as they tried to find any sort of reference for guidance.

"Everything we're doing now is completely new, so we should be prepared for anything." Shigure told them.

"Hmm… Wasn't there a ship girl who boasted about entering the Abyss before?" Aoba brought up.

"Huh?"

"You know, that girl who was bullying Fubuki-san because she thought Fubuki-san was just a scaredy cat?"

"Aoba-san, you know we're not as well informed as you in gossip…" Asagumo sighed.

"Oh? I thought all of you knew, because the Admirals tried to find out from her."

"Oh, her? If I remember correctly, she said the Abyss was just filled with fog, and you could never make your way back unless you know where you are." Shigure stated, trying to remember the incident.

"If I recall properly, her statement was busted because she had no experience with fighting the Abyssal, as reported by Tenryuu-san." Asagumo continued.

"Eh? It was busted?" Aoba half-shouted in shock.

"Huh, what was busted?" Kitakami join in with interest.

"Kitakami, please look out for the enemy fleet." Shigure ordered her.

"Right, right…"

"So it was busted because she had never fought the Abyssal ships before?" Aoba asked with interest.

"Yeah, but it's strange you didn't know about it, with your snooping and all." Harusame said suspiciously.

"Probably too busy trying to spread the gossip of it than keeping up with her sources." Asagumo explained with a sigh.

"Well, either way, it's false, Shigure's hallucination and all. But it didn't give us much information either. She only said it was filled with fog." Aoba spoke, thinking about their own position, "There's nothing else of interest in her statements, other than Abyssal Ships, which is a given."

"They're the Ships of the Abyss, after all." Asagumo deadpanned.

"Yeah, I guess it— huh?" Aoba stopped her conclusion halfway.

"What is it Aoba-san?" Shigure asked, having a bad feeling.

"I… I thought I heard something…" she swerved about uncertainly, trying to discern its location. Shigure, trusting the Heavy Cruiser's senses, started searching for the source of the voice.

…_Six little fleet girls sailing overhead…_

"Ah?"

"You heard that too?"

"Are they talking about us?"

Various voices sounded out as Shigure, Asagumo and Aoba tried finding the origins of the voices.

"Do you see anything?"

"Not yet, Shigure-san."

… _One fell down and drowned to death…_

"I don't like this, let's get out of here." Harusame whispered worriedly.

"The fog seems to be clearing up," came in Kitakami's report.

"Ah, over there Shigure-san!" Asagumo pointed out a figure at the distance.

Shigure's eyes widened with shock as she saw the figure come into view: A young, heavily bruised girl, around the height of a pre-teen, stood there with heavily torn clothing. Her long, pale silver hair seemed to be caught in the wind, had they actually felt any, and her cold, dead eyes stared straight at them.

"A… girl?" Shigure whispered as the other ship girls took notice of a newcomer.

"Who is she?" One voice sounded.

"Is she with the Abyssal?" Another questioned.

As of the girl's clothing, it was really torn; barely covering any of the girl's decency, shades of red coated the possibly green and white shirt. Her skirt was quite possibly green with large splotches of red on it, with a red liquid running down to her thigh high socks and shoes. The girl's Torpedo Launchers, heavily riddled with holes and smoke, held on for life on her thighs, swinging haphazardly as she faced them. Even her rigging was no better: the entire top half was gone, and the bottom quarter seemed to be infested with an unknown parasite.

…_Captain called the Abyss and the Abyss said…_

Slowly, the eyes shifted from one girl to another, as if counting using her eyes. With no warning, she stopped on one of them, and "spoke".

…_No more ship girls sailing overhead…_

Immediately, the fog quickly receded, revealing two older women dressed completely in black, holding a pair of large containers, each having several barrels jutting out towards them.

"T-that's…" Shigure began, frozen in shock.

"R…Ru…class…" Aoba confirmed shakily.

"S…Something… like this… Aah…" Asagumo could not speak coherently as the fleet backed away slowly.

The red eyes of the women held amusement as the bleeding girl continued.

…_Onee-chan… time to fall…_

_Kaboom-Boom._

Their flight instinct kicked up, the six fleet girls broke the human chain began sailing for their lives, screaming in terror. All around them, displaced water flew hard into the air as shots rained upon the fleet.

"Run! Run away! There's no way we can fight them right now!" Harusame cried as one of the shells landed dangerously near the girl, sending her off balance.

"Go! Go! Live to fight another day!" Shigure screamed as she ushered the group away from the two Ru-class battleships.

"No… I don't want to die like this… not like this!" Kitakami wailed as more shells flew upon them.

"They're going to kill Kitakami-san as well as us at this rate!" Ooi yelled at Shigure.

"There's no need to fight a losing battle, let's get out of here!" yelled Asagumo

Shigure turned around to fire her cannon at the Ru-class, hoping to incapacitate their movements. Unfortunately, she after she fired her first volley, one of their shells struck her, detonating.

"Gwahh!" Shigure let out a cry of shock as her nerves flared up in pain.

"Shigure, are you alright!?" Aoba shouted in concern.

"I-I'm okay, just a scratch." Shigure yelled back as she got back up.

* * *

Various cries of shock and pain were heard as the fleet of three pursued the fleeing fleet girl calmly, firing as they walked. One of the fleet girls took another shot, falling face first.

"Ah! Crap, my propellers!" she screams in pains, trying to crawl to safety.

Halfway through her movements, a hand emerged from the sea, harshly grabbing the incapacitated ship girl's leg.

"Huh!? What!?"

Another pale girl surfaced in front of her, her long black hair covering most of her features. The face of the girl morphed into a unnerving smile as she held onto the fallen ship girl.

"You? What are you—"

_SPLASH_

The ship girl never completed her sentence, the newcomer dragging the body of her victim into the Abyss.

Not like this! The girl thought frantically as she struggled hopelessly against the strong grip.

Not like this!

As the events played out, the fleet of three stopped their shelling, a creepy smile adorning their features.

The pre-teen girl, watching the entire scene in delight, turned to one of the Ru-class battleship.

"Ne… what should we do now?" She spoke simply. The Ru-class looked at her silently, communicating her thoughts to her.

"Ah, is that so?"

Another moment of silence

"That's fine with me; I get to keep playing with onee-sans, after all…" Giving a sweet smile to her companion, she started singing again.

_Run, run, as fast as you can! I will catch you, I'm all around you! Hahahaha…_

Giving a soft giggle, the three abyssal girls continued their pursuit, with the silent atmosphere only broken by the sound of the young girl's insane laughter.

When her laughter subsided, the girl then continued her song.

_Six little fleet girls sailing overhead,_

_One fell down and drowned to death._

_Captain called the Abyss and the Abyss said,_

"_No more fleet girls sailing overhead."_


	3. Numbing Cold

Chapter 2: Numbing Cold

* * *

Shigure was not sure how long since she fled from the Ru-class destroyers, but her flight instincts were no longer screaming at her. She slowed down to review her current position.

One, the entire fleet is scattered right now, gathering them back is the highest priority.

Two, She herself is a lot more likely to sink as of now, due to taking a number of close proximity shots from the Ru-class battleship.

Three, she was in unknown territory; drawing attention to herself would more likely cause her to sink.

Number Three was contradicting Number One, so she will have to choose between safety and priority as of now. Having run straight into the fog to avoid shelling, she couldn't see much in front of her.

Shigure tried using her other senses to determine what she could do, closing her eyes to try improving her other senses. She could not hear any shelling, nor could she smell smoke from burning ships.

Hopefully, it is the fact that her fleet mates got away safely rather than her being too far to smell their dying wreckages, an uncomfortable though ran through her mind as she noted down her observations. Past memories of being alone resurfaced and she shivered with uncontrollable fear.

With no sounds of cannon fire, it is a possibility that the fleet had managed to lose their pursuers, and are either still sailing away, or trying to find one another.

"Shigure to all fleet members, do you copy?" She tried her radio, and was met with static.

"Shigure to all fleet members, respond!"

What is wrong with her radio, it was working fine before they entered the Abyss…

_Pitter Patter Pitter Patter_

A cacophony of light taps drew her attention to her clothes, which were starting to get damp from a light rain.

"It's raining?" Shigure whispered to herself, holding her right hand face up to confirm the fact. A cool, randomized pattern of raindrops fell onto her hands like a piano master as she stared at the beautiful sight in the sky.

Countless Auroras had been spilled across the vast sky, as if dancing through the sky, mocking their misfortune. Shigure could not recognise the colour, captivated by the memorising sight.

"Beautiful…" Her mind wandered as she stared into the pitch black sky, the Auroras twinkling and sparkling with wonderment. Her spirits lifted, she focused on the matters at hand.

She should be safe yelling for her comrades since she was not interrupted in her stargazing, Shigure thought with some embarrassment. Stargazing… in the middle of enemy territory…

What is wrong with her today…

Taking a deep breath, she began shouting.

"Asagumo-san! Harusame-chan! Aoba-san! Where are you!"

She stopped for a moment to hear any response. A short moment of silence, and the young girl continued.

"Ooi-san! Kitakami-san! Can you hear me!?"

"…re… er… ere!" Asagumo's voice penetrated the second round of silence, startling Shigure to turn left. Without thinking, she sailed full speed at the source of the voice.

"Asagumo-san! I'm coming over!"

"Shigu… Where… at!" Asagumo yelled back.

"I'm coming in from the right, I think!" Shigure yelled back.

"To my right!? Oka-argh!" Asagumo turned out to be much closer than she though, the two colliding head-first.

"Ouch…" The two ship girls moaned in pain.

"Geez, Shigure-san, are you that fearful of being alone?" Asagumo complained as she stood up, clutching her pounding head to ease it. Shigure gave a sheepish laugh and replied,

"I knew you were close, but not this close…"

A brief moment of silence passed as the two got back up and starting moving together, discussing their next course of action.

"With the fleet separated as it is, I'm reluctant the head back with the two of us. We ran here in the first place to escape our enemies." Shigure sighed, staring into the sky.

"And the Abyss seemed to be inside a Geomagnetic Storm, I don't think they'll be able to leave the abyss without any help."

"A Geomagnetic Storm, huh… That explains the radio interference I had as well." Asagumo sighed as well, staring at the strange Auroras dominating the sky.

"What a problem the Abyss is, huh?"

"Yeah… Let's gather the fleet back." Shigure once again inhaled deeply before yelling out.

"Harusame-chan! Aoba-san! Please respond!"

"Kitakami-san! Ooi-san! Can you hear us!?"

* * *

"Oi~… Ooichi, Destroyers, Aoba-san… can you hear me?" Kitakami called out lazily as she sailed aimlessly around the area. Having been separated from the group, Kitakami was pretty nervous of being alone. She could not recall a moment where Ooichi or another ship girl wasn't around her.

"I guess Ooichi did make me too comfortable around people…" She sighed in disappointment.

_You're not alone…_

"Huh? Ooichi?" Hearing a voice, she scanned her surroundings for a possible person.

_How nice… to possess a physical vessel… I want… one as well…_

A chill ran down Kitakami's spine. Being unable to see her speaker was one thing, a ghost being the speaker was another. She spun around frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of the supernatural.

"Who's there?" She cried. An eerie void filled the area before the voice replied.

_You can hear me…?_

"You're creeping me out, could you at least tell me your name?" She tensely replied.

… _Says the girl… from the country… that introduces oneself… first…_

Wait, how did she know she was from Japan? Kitakami brushed the though aside and introduced herself warily.

"Light Cruiser Kitakami, nice ta meet 'ya, I think?"

The voice took a moment to remember before replying.

_Ah… Kitakami… san… I am… Destroyer… Shino…nome…_

Destroyer Shinonome, that name struck her hard. Kitakami was there when Shinonome was launched, the generation of Fubuki-class destroyers that revolutionized the destroyer-class warships. Kitakami had to ask for confirmation."

"Shinonome? Like the one of Fubuki-san's sisters?"

…_Fubuki…nee-san…? Is she… well…?_

That almost confirmed it, Kitakami was sure. Sister ships are the one who usually call their sisters 'nee-san'. She may not like destroyers, but she felt like Shinonome deserved to know. Besides, she was feeling lonely; Shinonome was good company, even as a spirit.

"I believe so; she achieved her short term goal, so she's satisfied right now."

The spirit did not respond, which puzzled her. She continued sailing aimlessly, her sense of direction long lost in her previous retreat.

* * *

"Kitakami-san? Asagumo-san? Where did you go?" Ooi yelled over the deafening silence. Without any direction, she sailed in a random direction, hoping to either meet up with the fleet, or find a possible escape route she could take.

As the massive fog cleared slightly, she spotted a number of unidentified objects to her left. Intrigued, she sailed closer for a better look.

Planks of worn wood dotted the sea surface without meaning, too new to have been tossed overboard. Ooi quickly guessed that the wood was supposed to be for damage control, but weren't able to be used in time.

Whatever ship the wood belonged to probably has sunk to the bottom already, she noted grimly. A small but noticeable glint appeared over at the end of the mess, and she moved to see what it was.

A wooden pencil, about the length of her finger, drifted harmlessly over the seas. A name had been engraved on it, a name she knows all too well.

"K…Kinu…gasa…?" Ooi read out, remembering the pink-haired girl that was Aoba's sister.

Of course, Kinugasa couldn't have sunk, she was off-duty from heavy injuries in a previous sortie, Ooi remembered. It was probably a memento, but for whom?

A few possibilities crept up in her mind, but one stood out from the rest.

It had to be Aoba's memento, hadn't it?

'Aoba…? But she's not that careless, unfortunately…' Ooi thought as she pocketed the pencil. If there was one thing Ooi had to admire about Aoba, it was her organization abilities that allowed Aoba to store and retrieve information for her newspaper.

'I'll just return it back when we meet up.' She reminded herself as she continued onwards.

* * *

Asagumo peered heavily into the fog, trying to identify the figures looming in the distance.

"No good, those are the enemies as well." She informs the concerned flagship.

"Is that so…" Shigure mutters, changing course to run perpendicular to the original course.

"Hey, are you sure we could even recover them." Asagumo voiced as she altered her course.

"It's not the matter of if we could find them. We came here to prevent ourselves from being sunk." Shigure explained, "We came here to escape combat, is it not counterproductive to let any of us sink?"

Asagumo debated internally as the two shifted course again to avoid another patrol. On one hand, it was an admirable goal, as getting as many out alive would deem that the Abyssal was not to be taken as seriously as before, but on the other hand, they might have already sunk, and the two of them could be already on a wild goose chase.

"But—"

"—my sister is stuck in here! You can't expect me to just abandon her, can you!?" Shigure replied angrily.

Asagumo kept quiet, unable give any form of rebuttal.

The duo sailed in relative silence as Asagumo thought of a way to break the tense atmosphere. A collision with an object did that for her. Surprised, she looked downwards, and froze at what she saw.

A round metallic object floated randomly around her foot. Thick, metal rods protruded from it, reminding her of a sea mine.

Scratch that, it was a sea mine.

"S…Shigure-san…" Asagumo called out nervously.

"What is it?" Shigure snapped as she turned about.

"I…I think… we're in a minefield." Asagumo state, causing the angry destroyer to stare out in shock.

Scanning the surface around them, she sees the same floating objects littered about the area, sending chills down her spine. Carefully, the smaller destroyer began navigating her friend out.

"With these things around… I don't think we should try entering this unless we get a mine countermeasure ship girl." Asagumo nervously said as she steered around another mine.

Shigure suddenly stops, facing her right, her eyes widened in shock.

"Shigure-san?" Asagumo called, looking over to where Shigure was looking at.

How she wish she didn't

A leg floated along the surface, a plain black shin-high sock covered the lower portion, or what's left of it. Multiple scars adorned the lone shin, indicating that it made contact with a sea mine.

Judging from the sock itself, it could belong to Harusame.

Worse yet, it was still bleeding, indicating fresh wounds.

Shigure took off at full speed, intending to follow the bloody waters to find her sister. Asagumo started chasing her a few seconds later, shouting to calm her down.

"Shigure-san, please calm down."

"I'm perfectly calm right now." Shigure yelled back.

"No, you're not! You want to find you sister urgently right now, but sailing at full speed may cause the same harm onto you!"

"I don't care, my younger sister could be bleeding out for all I know!" Shigure screamed back, but Asagumo took note that she had started paying attention to the sea mines around her.

* * *

Quickly, the two destroyers reached the scene of the explosion, an island at the edge of the minefield.

Harusame laid on the beach of the island, her two legs and an arm missing from her body. Said wounds were oozing blood at an alarming speed. Her pupils were dilating in shock, and her breathing was extremely shallow and ragged.

Shigure quickly disembarked from sea, removing her shoes and socks to bandage up the major wound. In a swift motion, she applied a harsh pressure on both of Harusame's thighs, eliciting a hoarse cry of pain from the critically wounded destroyer.

"I don't have any more wraps… Asagumo-san, could you lend me your arm band?"

"Already ahead of you." Asagumo tensely replied, holding out the arm band that was once on her left arm. In one deft motion, Shigure snatched the loose apparel and tied it directly around the last missing limb, causing Harusame to faint in shock.

Checking the unconscious sister for a pulse, Shigure lifted her into a bridal carry.

Asagumo gave an audible gulp before pointing out a problem they have now.

"Shigure-san, you can't carry Harusame-san and fight at the same time."

"I know… but… I don't want to abandon my sister."

"If we don't, you would be putting all of us in danger by not being to help battle if that happens."

Shigure stayed silent as the larger destroyer berated her choice, knowing that Asagumo would've done the same.

"You would've done the same if Yamagumo was the one instead." She mutters in between Asagumo's lecture, stopping the scolding short.

"I know that… But you have to make the best decision for the fleet. You're our flagship, remember?" Asagumo reminded her, to which her face darkened.

A tense silence washed over the two as Shigure mentally debated between her choices. Scanning around the island, a solution dawned on her.

"Shigure-san?" Asagumo called out as Shigure set to work, laying Harusame down and pulling down vines around the island and braiding them up. Using a portion of her strength to test its strength, she returned to Asagumo with the makeshift rope.

"Wrap them around Harusame when I got her on my back." She ordered, shifting Harusame onto her back. Detaching the cannons on her riggings, it gave Asagumo some space to secured Harusame.

Shigure turned side to side, testing the security before wearing her shoes again.

"Let's go."

Silently, Asagumo followed her flagship as they embarked off the island.

A figure loomed onto the distance, too short to be a battleship. Shigure and Asagumo braced themselves for a fight.

"Who's there— Ah, it's just Shigure-san and Asagumo-san." The figure shouted, her dark green uniform and brown hair giving herself off.

"Oh, Ooi-san." Shigure acknowledged, "Do you know where Aoba-san and Kitakami-san is?"

Ooi shook her head, pulling out the wooden pencil she picked up earlier. On closer observation, there were several chips and scratches scattered around the cover of the pencil.

"This is the only clue I could find of Aoba-san, no sign of Kitakami-sama." She reports.

"I see..." Shigure sighed with disappointment.

Falling in line behind Asagumo, the light cruiser noted the crippled destroyer on Shigure's back.

"Ano... I could carry Harusame-san if you want." she offers, only to receive a shake of her flagship's head.

"It's my responsibility, not yours." Shigure gently replied, focusing on another figure approaching.

That green uniform, could it be?

"KITAKAMI-SAMA!" Ooi, who noticed the uniform color, sprinted forward, the water situation all but forgotten.

"Ooi-san!"

"Ooi!"

Two voices screamed out as Ooi ran headfirst into a sea mine, setting it off. In the midst of the explosion, she saw her lower half thrown back as she tumbled forward.

"What..." Ooi began as her upper torso roughly landed onto another mine.

"OOI-CHI!"


	4. Internal Conflict

Chapter 3: Internal Conflict

A massive fireball engulfed Ooi, showering the destroyers in blood as her body loses form. Horror enveloped their faces as the watched a close friend of theirs was torn into pieces.

Kitakami wasted no time diving headfirst into the inferno, hoping to find any sort of sign that her ship sister is still alive.

Her body seared in protest to her reckless efforts, trying to dissuade her mind from continuing onwards. But with Kitakami's mind shutting down, it was just like talking to a brick wall. Several points of her rigging melted as she forced herself forward.

As quickly as it appeared, the grand fireball disappeared, taking all signs of the other torpedo cruiser with it.

Shigure and Asagumo stood frozen while Kitakami veer around vehemently in vain.

"O-Ooi…" Shigure uttered in shock at the sudden demise.

Asagumo screamed in terror quickly after as shells began raining down on the remaining fleet girls, telling them to move.

"K-Kitakami-san! We have to move! Now! Shigure frantically called out to the shell shocked cruiser while sailing forward. Seeing no response, Shigure made a grab on Kitakami, only to be violently thrown back.

"Let me go! I'm going to sink those bastards!" the other girl hollered angrily, firing off her guns in retaliation to the enemies shells. Desperate, Shigure latched onto Kitakami's legs.

"Don't! Ooi-san would want you to follow her!" Shigure pleaded.

The statement stunned Kitakami long enough for both Shigure and Asagumo to pull her out of firing range.

Due to the restless chase from the Abyssals, the flagship searched desperately for a way to escape their sight.

"Curse this fog, why can't it be helpful and cover us already!" Asagumo cried as several shells bounced off her turret.

The Abyssals continued chasing them, exchanging cannon fire to slow down the routing fleet.

Shigure turned around an island corner nearby breaking line of sight from the Abyssal fleet to buy some time.

"Asagumo-san, do you have any ideas?"

"Maybe if I had someone else towing this suicidal cruiser, I would!" Asagumo screamed back as a shell sliced a huge but shallow wound onto her cheek. Towing Kitakami had caused tremendous consequences on the other conscious destroyer, as her turret suffered multiple dents and holes from shielding herself.

Kitakami continued hurling curses and swears at her escorts as they dragged her around several corners, doing their best to lose their pursuers. Twice, Asagumo checked if the Abyssals were on their tail. And twice did she confirmed it.

On the third try, all she saw was a white fog.

Asagumo held her breath as she scanned the fog for any signs of enemy ships. A short time passed before she reported to Shigure.

"No signs of the pursuing fleet, we might have lost them."

The fleet slowed down significantly at the statement, checking their surroundings to be sure.

"That was a close one." Shigure sighed with relief, only to hear the dark mutterings of Kitakami.

"You damn destroyers, why can't you let me fulfil my promise with Ooi..."

"Why can't we... Ooi-san wouldn't want you to die with her!" Asagumo exclaimed angrily to the broken cruiser.

"You could escaped by yourself while I held them off."

"I can't let other people sacrifice themselves just for the fleet!" Shigure growled, memories resurfacing.

"Sh...Shigure..." Kitakami stuttered.

"You survived until the end of the war! Surely you remember know how hard it is living with the knowledge of having others die for you!" Shigure yelled.

Kitakami remained silent as Shigure continued lecturing the torpedo cruiser.

"As much as you promise her to die together, Ooi would not want you to die recklessly if she died first. Do you think that squaring off fruitlessly against an unknown amount of enemies would make her happy!?"

"Shigure-san... " Asagumo whispered with worry.

"If she died earlier, then live for her! Only when you have lived life to the fullest is when you should return to her!"

"Brave words coming for a casualty of war!" Kitakami yelled back angrily.

"I was the only survivor of the Nishimura Fleet! Do you think I know nothing about guilt!?" Shigure roared back, grinding her head against the cruiser.

"If you oh-so-wonderfully claimed to be an expert of guilt, then shouldn't you understand why!?"

"Of course I understand, that's why you shouldn't do it!" the two ship girls locked eyes with one another, refusing to give way. Tears threatened to escape their eyes.

"When the Nishimura fleet reunited months ago, I asked them, 'why did I survive while you perished?'." Shigure explained.

"Yamashiro-san came up to me and told me that they needed someone to warns others of the trap they had triggered. I was the only one able to escape because Yamashiro-san deemed me the only one capable of the task."

Asagumo nervously watched the entire exchange, glancing around every now and then for possible signs of enemy ships.

"She told me that she wanted me to live for them, not to die alongside. Yamashiro-san told me she would've been disappointed had I continued a losing fight. I am sure that if Ooi-san was here, she would have told you the same!"

"Why would she? A death like that, she will have been happy to meet me under the sea."

"No she wouldn't." Asagumo interrupted, swallowing hard.

"I was one of Nishimura's ships, remember? One that took the brute of the American ambush. As I sunk there, I felt satisfied that I was the one, not anyone else, who received it."

Silence ensued as droplets of tears leaked out of Kitakami's eyes.

"Ooichi… why…" the torpedo cruiser sniffed, breaking down shortly.

After a few minutes of comforting silence, Kitakami got back up with fresh determination.

"Ooichi death was a mistake, one that I will never forgive."

Hearing her resolution, the two destroyers gave an audible gulp.

"To rectify this issue, I will try not to sink while sinking as many Abyssals as I can."

"Kitakami-san…" Asagumo tried to stop her.

"However, this remnant of the fleet needs to survive, and if I survive this, I get to pay them back twofold. So I will abide your orders." Kitakami finished, giving a teasing smile to Asagumo.

"Eh?"

"Eh? You really think that I didn't think it through?" Kitakami replied, "Man, we've been staying here for so long, I bet we'd been out of the Abyss had we not stopped."

"Alright." Shigure agreed, turning back towards the direction they were heading.

"Right now, we need to figure out our current position relative to our home port. Any solutions?" Blank silence greeted the flagship. Pondering for a moment, she corrected herself.

"We need to find Aoba-san before that, and leave the Abyss first."

"Ah, about that…" Kitakami started hesitantly.

"Back when we were scattering, I saw Aoba-san sink behind me."

"Eh?"

"Y-yeah…" the cruiser trailed off, "Ooichi… Ooichi could confirm for me, I think."

The mention of their now deceased friend make them glance around uneasily.

"Are you… sure…?" Asagumo questioned. A nod.

"Then… that means there's only us left." Asagumo quietly stated.

"We should try to get out. The Compass seems to be going haywire in this mist."

"No kidding, it wasn't built to navigate the Abyss, but around it." Kitakami commented.

"I'm pretty sure we have been heading north this entire time, so switching over to travel Westwards should send us straight back into our port." Asagumo suppliers hopefully.

"Our last evasive maneuver did remove and orientation we had earlier unfortunately." Shigure sighed, already regretting her decision.

"Mahh… it's not like you have a choice. I don't fancy sinking anytime soon." Kitakami laughed nervously. " If only we had some sun." She complained as she stared at the clouded Sky.

"Hmm? Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that a sunrise?" Kitakami pointed to a blurry ball of yellow.

The two other ship girls turned about, hope returning to their downcast eyes as the sun embraced them with its shining glory.

"The sun always rises from the east, so we should be heading away from the sun to continue Westwards." Asagumo yelled in delight.

For a long time since the fleet scattered, Shigure let out a smile.

"Hn, let's go."

The scent of the sea breeze assaulted Harusame as she woke. Weary eyes drifted about to take note of the situation.

"Where am…"

Recent memories ran through the pinkette's mind. The barrage from a Ru-class, the evasive maneuver, the collision with an Abyssal Sea Mine.

And now, she's… being towed, by a girl that looks like her sister.

"… I'm sure the admiral is worried about us as well." Her tug boat responded to a question Harusame had missed.

That voice, could it be?

"Shi…gure…?" Harusame hesitantly prodded, causing Shigure to turn to face her.

"Ah, you're awake." A relieved smile washed over the concerned face that could only be her sister.

All Harusame could remember was colliding with a naval mine. Then, darkness.

"How… did you find… me?" the crippled destroyer asked. By all right, she was still being hunted by a battleship when things took a turn for the worst, did they not see her exploding?

"We found you beached on one of the islands. Your… limbs, they're gone."

Harusame glanced down to her body, despite Shigure's attempts to stop her. Other than her right arm which was clinging onto her sister ship, Harusame could not see any of her other limbs.

"I'm sorry…" Shigure offered.

"It wasn't your fault." Harusame answered back, to shocked to registered that she was now a triple amputee.

Quietness ensued between the two sisters as Harusame silently mourned her loss. At least the were not permanent, a trip to the dockyards will allow her limbs to regrow and be useful again. But until then, she was just baggage.

Off to the side, Asagumo quietly conversed with Kitakami about the locations of the enemy fleet's.

"I do hope that was the last of the enemy fleet," Kitakami spoke, glancing back at the fog behind them. "Having no means of recon tends to make me worried about crashing into the enemy."

"What happened while I was out?" Harusame piped up.

Asagumo gave a concerned look at Kitakami and Shigure, scanning their downcast faces.

"Should I…?" She stopped herself short, already knowing the answer.

"Asagumo-san?"

"We were careless in our escape. Two of our members are already dead."

The pinkette's eyes widens in shock.

"What…!? How!?"

"It does not matter any more. Our priority now is to evacuate ourselves from this mess we've made." Asagumo tells her quietly.

Shigure tried to open her mouth to talk to her sister when cannon fire interrupted her.

"Eto… does that mean we're in trouble?" Kitakami joked.

"Ack! You had to jinx it, didn't you!?" Asagumo screeched.

"Both of you, calm down! We have not detected hostiles in our vicinity, they should not have found-"

Crash!

"SHIGURE!"

Her voice was interrupted as shells crashed into her back. Her hunched body was forced to stretch backwards from the explosion of the shells.

Like a string puppet whose strings were cut, Shigure crumbles onto the sea surface.

_Looks like... this is it for me... Admiral... everyone... Good bye..._


	5. Escape

Chapter 5: Escape

* * *

Panic settles between the two remaining warships as their flagship lies unconscious near them.

"What do we do!? What do we do!? The enemy is attacking us and we can't fight back!?" Asagumo breaks down as large shells fall all around them, creating large geysers of water to further confuse them.

"Asagumo-san, c-calm down" Kitakami shakily yells out, "Shigure-san is down, b-but we're not out of the woods!" she raised her arm to shield herself from the shelling.

"A...Asa...gumo... san..."

A painful sting hits Kitakami as her arm was blown off from a shell, causing her to cry out.

"Kya!"

"Kitakami-san!?" Asagumo made to race over to the Torpedo Cruiser, but another girl's voice drew her attention.

"A...Asa...A-Asagumo... s-san..."

Looking down on the prone form of Shigure, Asagumo's stomach lurched heavily as she saw the pathetic state of the Shigure's incapacitated sister. Half of the pinkette's face was missing, and blood leaked out of the large gaps on her back. She quickly realized that Harusame had essentially shielded her own sister from harm.

"Shimata! Harusame-san! Hang in there!" Another she'll explodes on Harusame, cause her to cry out in agony.

"You're going to be fine, Harusame-san! J-just hang in there!"

"I...I'll be... fine...? N-nevermind me... G...get Shi... Shigure... née out..." the pinkette ordered.

"Uh... Okay, you're clearly not fine, Harusame-san! L-let me help!" Asagumo pleaded.

"Help... Shigure...san..."

Asagumo bit her lips hard. Sure she could tow one of the destroyers back, but two at once? Not only was one of them unfit to take the waves, the other one was unconscious, meaning she had to carry both of them herself.

"Kitakami-san, could you help-"

"- Can't do that, sorry." Kitakami rejected immediately, keeping her back facing them.

"Why not!?"

"Cause destroyers are annoying." She answered simply.

"Cheeee"

"Just take Shigure and go, s'not like Harusame has any survivability as she is. You'll be bringing back scrap."

"...Why?" Her hands couldn't stop shaking, why was Kitakami acting like this?

"Mhm?"

"Why are you acting like this!? If you pitched in and towed Harusame-san, we could pulled them out alive!"

"Harusame gonna be dead in a few minutes, nothing we can do to stop the blood loss." Pulling her hand back towards the Asashio-class, she continued, "Pass me her torpedoes, I'll better off with them."

Asagumo stared at the haughty Torpedo Cruiser with disbelief.

How... How dare she orders her to leave Harusame to sink and give her the torpedoes.

"It's okay..."

"Huh?"

"It's okay... Asagumo..." Harusame gently consoled the distraught girl. "She is right..."

"But..."

"Hate to disturb your precious good byes, but the enemy is approaching and I'd really like to be armed for the next attack."

"You little bitch!" Asagumo screams at the Torpedo Cruiser, "We should have let you sink yourself at the mine field earlier! If you were going to be this bitchy about Harusame-san, do us a favor and sink yourself!"

A brief silence fills the area as the waters returned back to the ocean, Kitakami turns her head partially and meets Asagumo's eyes from the corner.

"You're the bitchy one, trying to save everyone." She coldly snaps at the red head. "This is war, you can't save everybody. Harusame just took six shells into her back, she's bleeding out rapidly and doesn't seem to be there at all anymore. Delaying the inevitable is not mercy."

Asagumo snaps her head back towards the pinkette. Sure enough, the girl's eyes was fading, as she doesn't seem to be breathing anymore.

"Harusame-san!? Harusame-san!?"

"It's okay... It's okay..." The girl mumbles. "I'll be fine..."

Harusame's breathing slows to a stop, as she stop mumbling anymore, her eyes remained open but unfocused.

"What'd I tell you? Hand me those torpedoes, destroyer." Kitakami coldly repeats herself.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Asagumo unfastened the torpedoes launchers from Harusame's amputated legs, tossing them over to the Torpedo Cruiser without a word.

"Thanks, now get out of here."

Asagumo reluctantly separates the sisters from one another, laying the expired on flatly on the sea surface.

"Gomen, Harusame..."

Wordlessly she releases the pink haired destroyer, watching her sink into the ocean for a while before she moved over to pick up the unconscious destroyer.

"Kitakami-san, I hope you sink in the most torturous of ways." she cursed the light cruiser.

Kitakami simply turned back forward, ignoring her curse. Without hesitation, Asagumo restated her engines, slowly towing Shigure away from Kitakami.

* * *

As she listened to the sound of the engines fading away, Kitakami suppresses the urge to laugh, feeling the pain in her abdomen from the chuckles she failed to contain.

Similarly to Harusame, her body was riddled with holes, except none of them had passed through her body, her left arm was gone, used to shield herself from a few shells aiming towards her face while her right knee no longer has flesh, showing only bloody bones and kneecaps.

"Sorry Asagumo, but I think you'd panic even more if you saw me..." Kitakami whispers to herself softly as the whistling of shells grew closed.

Holding the launcher with her teeth, she transfers the torpedoes from Harusame's launchers to her own, filling up the remaining spots of her launcher with Harusame's last six torpedoes, throwing the launchers into the sea as soon as she was done with them.

"Adding those six, I should have twenty eight in total..." she confirms with her observation. "Guess I couldn't hold onto that promise, Shigure-san..." She smiles as her eyes focused on the approaching fleet of battleships and cruisers.

"I'll show you the power of Super Kitakami-sama." She grins as she begins deployment of four torpedoes. Aiming her gun as the closest destroyer, she opens fire and let it strike right into it's magazines. As the battleships steer themselves towards the Torpedo Cruiser, the two torpedoes hit the battleships spot on as they opened fire on the slow moving Torpedo Cruiser. The brief fire explosive brought satisfaction to Kitakami as she slowly moved herself into her position of her next attack.

A couple of shells lightly hit her from her right, pulling her attention towards another plair of destroyers. Grimacing in pain, she shifted her aim towards the left one, hitting the further destroyer right in the eye. The destroyer exploding in flames before they sailed away from her range.

A dull throb hits her as she deployed the next Salvo of four, informing her that she had been hit on her left thigh, her breath hitched as she swallowed the urge to cry, keenly intending for Asagumo to not be worried. Turning towards the Heavy Cruisers, she returns fire on them, scoring several insignificant hit as the torpedoes travels towards them unnoticed. The Heavy Cruisers moved forwards to finish the lone cruiser, only to erupt into a fireball.

Four down, a hundred to go, she assures herself.

Her teeth clamps down on her lips hard, allowing the Torpedo Cruiser to ignore another two blows in her head and chest respectively. Spotting a fleet of three warships heading to her right, she launches another four torpedoes at their direction while moving perpendicular in their direction, sinking the ships with unnverving accuracy, leaving her with only twelve torpedoes.

Re-orientating herself, she spies a pair of Light Cruisers heading straight at her. Dropping two fishes into the water, she grimances as she see they avoid the shots with ease. Following up with a pair of shots from her single 14cm gun, she scores two hits on the legs of one of them, causing it to sink into the water.

She drops another torpedo into the water, dropping a second one in a different direction before firing off the last two shots at the Light Cruiser. One of the shot hits the Chi-class, sending it reeling to it's left, right into the torpedo's path.

A Ta-class approaches her from her back with her escorts. Kitakami opens up with two torpedoes that hit the destroyers, followed by another four that sinks the rest of the Ta-class' escorts. Arming the last two, she stops moving as her engines died on her.

Kitakami smiles randomly as the battleship lifts her by her collar, the look of contempt filling the Torpedo Cruiser with satisfaction. "Are you ready to sink, monster?"

"Definitely not."

She swings her left hard into the naval of the Ta-class, letting the contact activate the warheads of her last two torpedoes. The Ta-class wails in agony as the magazine in her turrets are caught up in the explosion, turning her into a source of fuel for the fireball that encompasses the two warships.

The Light Cruiser begin sinking as the fire died down, letting Kitakami give off one last laugh before water filled her vision.

As the Torpedo Cruiser makes her way down into the abyss, she gave herself one more selfish though.

_Man... the next time, I'd like to be reborn... As an Aircraft Carrier in my next life phrase..._

_...Even an Repair Ship isn't bad..._

It's been two hours since Asagumo separated from Kitakami.

* * *

Strange...

That's the word the girl settled on as she watched the Torpedo Cruiser fall into the Abyss. Kamusus like her usually have a large sense of hatred towards their Admiral as they fell, always cursing and swearing the authority that left them to die.

So... why is someone like her... merely disappointed in herself?

Questions resonated through the hollow body as she mutely watched the lifeless corpse sink, meeting the unfocused grey eyes with her own, emotionless amber ones.

It was not the only one, earlier, there was another destroyer that was content in her passing.

It was... interesting how they felt no regret being sent to their deaths.

The young mind was not concerned, the hull she resides in would not able sea worthy for another few months, so she had plenty of time to understand to minds of the two unique specimens that entered her grasp.

Humming a monotonous tune, she circled the two ship girls slowly, seeing if their physical appearance might give them a reason.

One similarity was the large quantity of wounds displayed on the lifeless hull, Kitakami's larger body was riddled with countless amount of missing flesh of various sizes while Harusame's was six notable large gaps in both her stomach and head.

She questioned if it was possible for the wounds to be their source of content.

...it would be impossible...

Besides, she was also subjected to a similar treatment, so why would she be the exception?

Hypothesis rejected.

* * *

The echoing cries of gunfire made Asagumo both glad and mad. On one hand, it meant Kitakami was still buying time for them to leave.

On the other hand, it mean that Kitakami was still alive. The same Torpedo Cruiser who told her to abandon Harusame.

Shaking her head out of her steaming hatred, she took in the sight of the sunrise. Despite the fog obscuring visibility down to a short distance, it was bright enough for the girl to assume that the sun was well up into the sky.

Which mean that, Asagumo mused silently, if she could still see the sun, she could sail away from it to reach her homeland.

Key word being 'if'.

"Damn it Asagumo, this is why you're never on time in those outings with Yamagumo-nee..." she berates herself as she adjust her grip on Shigure. Poor girl must have taken a hell of an impact to be knocked out for so long.

Sailing forward, she rummaged through Shigure's pocket, hoping that the Compass would provide some sort of assistance.

"Kami-sama, if you're there, please allow Shigure-san to return home." She prays silently as she pulls it out of Shigure's skirt. Holding the compass straight ahead, she observes the spinning motion of the arrow.

"Please work..."

Silence fills the empty waters as Asagumo concentrated on the compass. Occasionally, she glances at the unconscious Shiratsuyu-class destroyer for any signs of return.

She was hopeful once while she sees Shigure stirring for a moment, contemplating whether to set Shigure down from her shoulder since she was going to wake up. However, the other destroyer chose to remain unaware of the living world, much to her disappointment.

"So much for escaping the Abyss... Aoba-san is gone, Kitakami-san and Ooi-san are gone." Asagumo despondantly muttered. "Even Harusame-san, the optimistic girl is gone... Leaving the two Nishimura girls alone."

She was suddenly aware of the how wet her face was. At first she chalked it up to the water geysers from the exploding shells, but the renewed wetness caused her to touch her face.

Tears

They were tears.

"kusou..."

She immediately thought of rubbing it off, seeing it as a sign of weakness.

But... there's no one here, no one to see her relapsing into weakness. Shigure is unconscious and wouldn't wake up for a while. Perhaps she'd stay asleep until her strength returns.

She let the tears flow, mourning the group of girls who followed her in to dangerous territory and bonded from that. While unfamiliar with the Heavy Cruisers, she learned alot more about the recently deceased than she did in her entire lifetime. Kitakami was equally dependant on Ooi as much as Ooi was, and Harusame always wished to be of some use to her allies, even at the cost of her own life.

As much as she hated to admit it, Kitakami's willingness to remain behind as a decoy was an admirable choice, Asagumo her was not sure if she could make that choice if it came to it.

Something odd occurred to the compass as she finished drying her tears, drawing her attention to the golden disc.

It has stopped spinning and was pointing straight ahead.

Hope filled Asagumo again, as she accelerated forward. She didn't noticed the fading crackling from her radio.

"Scouting fleet, if you can hear this, please respond!"

"Eh?" She blinks in surprise, reaching over to her radio set and tapping into it.

"A...Asa...gumo here..." She fidgets as she thinks of what to say. " I'm... uh... here?"

Sighs of relief could be heard through the radio set.

" Asagumo-san, thank goodness! We're all thought you were dead!" A young woman's voice reverberated through the speaker. "Hang on for a moment, what's your position right now?"

"Aaaahhh..." A brief panic settles into the redhead, and she began looking around frantically to spot any sort of land mark she could use.

"I... uh... don't know..." She finally admits after a while, "I think we should be somewhere north west of our last position, but there's nothing here that seems unique to me."

"North West..." Asagumo hears the woman. mutters repeatedly. "North West... northwest... Asagumo-san, how many islands can you see around you?"

"Eto... two, maybe. There's one up ahead surrounded by reefs and corals, and I think there is another on off to the left side."

"Stand by, Asagumo-san, how many other ships are with you?"

Leaving the radio mic muted, she then turned to check on the unconscious Shigure. Seeing no prior changes to the other destroyer, she replied to the radio operator.

"There's only two of us, the others did not make it."

"How can that-!?" Sudden silence stopped the conversation short, probably because said operator released the microphone button in shock. Asagumo simply welcomed the silence, staring off aimlessly into the distance as she waited for further orders from headquarters.

"Asagumo-san, could you explain the circumstances which led to your survival?" the radio eventually crackled, abeit with a more masculine one. Recognizing the voice to be that of her admiral, Asagumo slowly recited her tale.

"It started about two hours ago..."

* * *

Anger... hatred...

These feelings bubbled through the small body of the abyssal as she scours her territory for the last two foolish ships girls.

Frustration was running rampant as all signs of them in the abyss no longer existed. But she knew they were not there yet.

Visions of empty oceans drifted past her eyes as she growled lowly.

A view of two ragged ship girls nearly slipped past her, the capital ship who saw them dismissing them as inoperable. She wrestled control from the observer, focusing and observing the details

One of the ships wore ragged dark shirt and skirt, badly torn from shell fire.

The other had a white shirt under a grey suspender skirt, equally damaged as the first.

She smiled, her target has been found.

Ignoring the wind drifting through her pale hair, she ordered the carrier to prepare for an attack on those two girls, her grin grows savagely as she imagined the despair on their face.

_"You can run, but you can't hide"_

* * *

"...And that's how we ended up here." Asagumo ended with a somber nod.

Nothing was spoken from the radio set in her rigging as the base personnel complied the destroyer's observation and predictions.

"So we were right after all, Abyssal Sea Mines, electrical interference, even being able to remove logical thinking from the ship girls within it..." The admiral spoke. "Asagumo-san, I will be sending these observations to Headquarters immediately. We have determined your location and are sending over an escort fleet right now."

"H-hai." Asagumo answered back, "I await good news."

As her hands left the push to talk, a chill went down her spine. Spinning around, she could not help but feel that she was being watched.

Who was watching her, and why?

Double checking the condition of Shigure, Asagumo checked began scanning the distance with her turrets, paranoia settling in as the eerie atmosphere began to affect her.

_Calm down, Asagumo. _She berated herself. _Its over already._

The sound of motors caught her attention. Turning towards the source, she began calling and waving towards the source, hope returned back to the red haired girl as she imagined her tearful reunion with Yamagumo.

Her face faltered slightly as her eyes detects a pair of air crafts coming from the direction which the sound originates from. _No worries, they should be scout craft on regular patrol, the ships would be coming next._Tension began rising as more planes flew into view, unnatural for a simple reconnaissance patrol. Part of her warned her that it could be an enemy attack, but she forced it out if sight. _It can't be the enemy, we have already fought with them enough, can't things go well for a change?_Said thought was swiftly crushed as details of the aircraft was recognized. White, round balls with sharp pointed teeth.

"Ah... Kami..."

What was the sound of hope turned into despair, Asagumo limply readied herself for anti aircraft combat, knowing full well that at the best circumstances, only one of them will return. Her eyes, once bright and shining, dulled greatly to an unfocused frown.


End file.
